Shamo's Shame
by Kanadajin
Summary: Shamo is a former Jedi apprentice who is living in the dark underworld of Coruscant, hiding from the Empire, when she intercepts a message to the Emperor that could destroy everything... [Completed!]
1. Blueprints and Senators

Shamo's Shame

* * *

Chapter One: Blueprints and Senators

Shamo slowly allowed herself to fade back into the shadows as the storm troopers began checking random people's identification chits. It wouldn't due to be caught – especially not while carrying an entire data pad full of rather 'anti-imperial' files.

Reaching out with the force, she touched the minds of the troopers nearest to her and peaked in to see who they were looking for.

Three people, two haltija and one human – the human was a known terrorist that went by the name of Iosef Tahlov, and the two haltija were his associates. Randal Burskchev was one and the second name made Shamo curse, Azaria Zemmick.

How did they know her real name? Shamo had taken such pains to completely cut all ties to her true identity, even going as far as faking her own death in a speeder accident, only to be brought down on something as insignificant as this, being charged with taking illegal holos of classified information.

Of course, Shamo had taken the holos, and been well paid for them by the little uprising called the alliance, but it had only been of a new class of single-manned fighters. TIEs, they were called on the blueprints. Crappy little things they looked like, but simple enough to mass produce.

So now Shamo looked desperately for a way around the troopers... it was far too dangerous to use the Force out in the open, especially so close to the Imperial palace. Holding her breath, Shamo concentrated on the force, letting herself stretch out just a little further to see a window of opportunity... and it showed itself.

Just a little ways away from where she crouched in the darkness was a grating that seemed to lead into a ventilation shaft of one of the innumerable passageways.

With a smile, Shamo nudged the grating lightly with the Force, and gently lifted it out of its housing. So far, no notice had been made by the troopers, and the Emperor hadn't appeared out of nowheres to zap her with blue lightning, so Shamo let out a sigh of relief and slowly made her way to the now open grating.

All she had to do now was pass out of one shadow to another, right beside a large trooper.

Standing tall, Shamo moved out of the protective shell of the deep shadow and walked steadily, without even glancing at the trooper, towards her escape route.

Alas, it wasn't meant to be.

**"Miss, can I see your ID?"**

Shamo paused, "Oh, lemme see if I have it."

The trooper shifted his weight impatiently as Shamo pretended to search through her pockets for the little red identification chit.

"You know what, I can't seem to find it right now," the young woman extended her hands out to the side in exasperation. "I think my sister borrowed them again so she could go drinking."

The trooper moved towards Shamo threateningly and motioned to his partner to come over. Working quickly, Shamo reached out and used the force to control this trooper.

**"What is it,"** the second trooper asked?

**"Nothing, it was my mistake. Please continue, miss."**

Shamo didn't release her hold of the troopers mind after she darted around the corner and down a hall. That had been far too close to call for her.

Pulling out a secure comlink, she buzzed a number.

"Yeah, who is this," a gruff voice answered.

"We need to shove off quick – they're looking for us and Tahlov. I nearly go caught right now. Get the ship ready, we need to go within the next 26 hours."

Randal sounded alarmed, "now! But Tahlov is on the other side of the friggin planet, and I don't have a secure line that far."

Shamo cursed.

"You can make a secure transmission to Alderaan but you can't get a safe message halfway across one planet?"

"No, frankly, I can't. Why don't _you_," Randal snarled, putting quite a negative emphasis on the word, "send him a message with your little Jedi trick?"

"Fuck that, Randal – you know as good as I do that if I try anything of that magnitude we're all toast. I pushed the line already today getting away from those sith-spitting stormtroopers. So get your act together and get the ship ready; if we can't get a hold of him, we'll have to leave without him."

There was a silence on the line.

"Randal?"

Finally a response came, but in a sort of strangled, very quite and panicked voice.

"Go! Get out of here, the imps must have traced the line! Get off this rock as soon as possible!"

The line was cut off just as Shamo caught the sound of blaster fire.

"Jesu!"

Without hesitation, Shamo flung the comlink off the bridge she was crossing and began to run towards the largest building she could find – the senate building.

Why she went there, she didn't know – it was the most heavily fortified and guarded building on the planet, after the Imperial palace and the old Jedi temple.

Rushing towards a busy entrance, Shamo filed into the enormous building with everyday people monotonously living their everyday lives.

Once she was in, Shamo paused... who could she possibly turn to?

Shamo wandered among the thousands of senatorial offices and the millions of legal aid cubicles until she ended up in front on one door. The senator of Alderaan – Bail Antilles wasn't that his name?  
Before she could stop herself, and force only knows why, Shamo knocked heavily on the old fashioned wooden door, turned the brass knob, and let herself in.

Several guards and aids immediately rushed towards the intruder.

After brushing off the hands of the security guards and several unimportant clerks, Shamo grabbed the sleeve of the senator's personal secretary.

"I need to speak with senator Antilles! It is of great importance," Shamo insisted.

The secretary pulled his sleeve away from her grip and regarded her with a cold look.

"Who are you?"

Crying out in frustration at the endless sea of hand grabbing at her arms, trying to force her out of the room, Shamo shouted the senator's name at the top of her lungs.

After three such yells, an interior door opened and a man with a fairly dark complexion stepped out.

"Let her go."

Immediately the guards backed away and the clerks and aids disappeared.

Shamo calmly readjusted her mussed tunic and brushed non-existent dust off her sleeves.

Antilles, or perhaps his head of security, took another step forwards.

"Who are you and what do you want, miss?"

Shamo made a light bow in his direction and held out her hands in token of peace.

"I'm an old friend of some of the senator's old friends. I wish to speak to him that is all."

The man was silent for a moment, and then motioned for her to follow him into the inner office. The office held many fancy chairs, and at the centre was a very grand desk.

The man seated himself behind it and indicated that she was to sit down in a chair in front.

This confirmed Shamo's suspicions that this man was Antilles himself.

"Well, you wished to speak to the senator, here I am now. You were quite lucky to have come at a time when I hadn't any previous engagements."

Shamo looked at the desk which was piled high with papers and datapads. Yes, the senator seemed to have a healthy sense of humour, and irony.

"Is this room safe, senator?"

Antilles' eyes flickered towards a guardsman standing slightly behind and to the side of Shamo. The guardsman nodded and Antilles looked back at her and smiled.

"Of course, we scan the offices every half hour for bugs. Now please, tell me, why such a big battle to gain an audience with myself? You could have simply made an appointment with my secretary."

Shamo felt herself relaxing into the soft chair as the smooth, cultured voice of the Alderaanian senator surrounded her, deep with its silky accent.

"Senator, I understand that you had many friends and acquaintances among the old Jedi order."

Antilles stiffened.

"Indeed I did, miss, but what of it? They are an extinct religion now."

Shamo smiled sadly, looking down at the blue and green carpet under her feet.

"Not completely extinct, senator, although as of around three hours ago, there was at least one more than there is now."

Biting her lip as to keep her emotions under control, Shamo looked up into the startled looking senator's eyes.

"My name was Azaria Zemmeck; I was the padawan learner to knight Revii Aelfhald, who was killed several years ago in the Clone Wars. Since then I have been I hiding with two other former padawans such as myself in the lower levels of Coruscant. Recently we seemed to have gotten ourselves into a bit of a bad situation – I was caught copying a new experimental fighter's designs. I got away but they found out who I was and traced my comlink to on of my companions. I..." Shamo's voice faltered and tears welled up in her silver eyes, "I think he was killed."

Shamo bowed her head down and remained silent.

Antilles too fell into silence.

It was the guard who finally spoke, "so you're running from the imperial guard and you go to the senate building? That's either madness or complete brilliance."

Shamo looked over at the man with a hint of a smile on her face.

"You'd be surprised by how many times I've heard that before."

Antilles shook his head, "I can see, Miss Zemmeck that you are in quite a fix, but what do you expect me to do about it?"

The young Jedi shrugged, "I thought you might be willing to help me out if I help you out. You know, I'll feed your wampa if you feed mine."

Antilles laid his hands out on his cluttered desk and leaned in closer towards her.

"And how do you believe that you can help me?"

Shamo closed her eyes, calling on her training to calm herself and soothe her jangling nerves.

"You must understand, senator, that I am not here as a threat. I am not trying to blackmail anyone, I am merely trying to follow my orders and get off this rock."

Antilles leaned back and let out a tired sigh, "what is it?"

"I was hacking into the mainframe of the Imperial computer system and came across a message that was in the process of being sent to the office of the Emperor. It wasn't much, but enough that I knew it could not reach the Emperor. I altered the data and covered my tracks, but kept a copy of the original message."

Reaching into her tunic, Shamo pulled out a small datapad and lightly set it down on the edge of the senator's desk.

Antilles studied the datapad, but kept his hands where they were.

"What is on it?"

Shamo looked around the room, as though to check that there were no storm troopers hiding behind the curtains ready to jump out and say 'gotcha'.

Once she was satisfied that there weren't any imperial guardsmen hanging around, Shamo picked up the pad, turned it on and accessed a file that was heavily coded and scrambled, then passed the pad to Antilles.

As he read the message his face went stark white and his free hand clenched into a tight fist. "Where did this come from?"

"From a 'confidential source' on your home world, senator. I tried to trace the message back, but it was well hidden and I couldn't get through the codes around it. I altered the message to say, in formal speech, of course, that there wasn't anything to be reported at the time. A message was sent back later that, again, I intercepted and altered. The source was informed to do nothing and await further instruction. I made a program on my pad to warn me whenever messages are being sent or received by either source."

Antilles dropped the datapad back onto his desk and leaned back into his chair, massaging his greying temples.

"So they know about the latest member of the Royal family, eh? This is bad – very bad."

Shamo only nodded.

"But what do you have to do with all this, why would you help us," Antilles demanded.

"You already forget that I was a Jedi! What cause should I have to not prevent this atrocity? Imagine! I once met Vader, before he was turned. He was a nice guy, a little high stung, arrogant and impulsive, but a nice guy... and very easy on the eyes, if I should add. This would be horrible if it got out, the Emperor would slaughter the Royal Family to get this child out of the way. What kind of a Jedi would I be to simply sit back and watch it happen?"

Antilles closed his eyes.

"And besides," Shamo added, "it was a way that I could get in touch with the alliance... a way to get off this rock and help out. I know I'm being selfish, but I think I have a good reason for it – the entire empire is hunting down any Jedi they can find and Coruscant is open hunting grounds. I've already been tagged for stealing those plans, too. I think I've worn out my welcome here, senator. The Force led me here to you with some purpose in mind, so will you please help me out?"

Antilles sighed, his eyes still closed. "When can you leave?"


	2. Journeys and Memories

**Chapter Two: Journies and Memories.**

* * *

"_Sub-Lieutenant Zemmeck, you have an incoming message from Coruscant. Should I direct it to your cabin?"_

_Shamo shook herself awake, "yes, forward it here, please, Ensign."_

_Quickly pulling herself off her desk and clearing the pads away from her holo projector, Shamo flicked the now red and blinking play button. A cloaked figure appeared in front of her in miniature size, flickering every now and then as static breached the integrity of the transmission._

"_Padawan Zemmeck?"_

_It was Master Koronin, a friend of her master._

"_Yes, Koronin? This is Zemmeck, how can I help you?"_

_Koronin pushed back his hood and looked up at Shamo, "I have both good news and bad news for you, my friend."_

_Shamo inhaled deeply, "the good new first, please."_

"_The good news," Koronin paused, and looked down at his hands, "is that the battle on Penthold went in our favour. There were few casualties."_

"_That's very good news, indeed... and what is the bad news?"_

_Koronin paused for a long time; the crackle of static seemed much louder in his silence. When he looked back up Shamo could see now that his eyes were red and glistening with unshed tears, and when he moved to speak, his voice broke._

"_I'm sorry, Azaria, but one of those few casualties was Revii. He's one with the Force now... I'm so sorry."_

_Shamo was in shock – her entire body felt like rock and her heart seemed to be pierced by splinters of ice. A lump developed in her throat._

"_Dead?"_

_She managed to hoarsely whisper._

_Koronin nodded, "I'm sorry."_

"_How did I not sense his leaving? How did I not know...? I should have been there!"_

_Looking up at her sternly, Koronin shook his head, "don't think like that, padawan. It's not your fault. He went peacefully, without pain. You have been busy, unhealthily busy. You need rest to heal – I've been ordered to summon you home to the temple. The council feels you need to come home, and I do as well."_

_Shamo closed her eyes and reached out to her master... but found only emptiness. The loss of that golden web between them was broken, the ends drifting away in the wind. Tears fell unbidden from her eyes and ran down her cheeks._

"_I will come home, master Koronin, when my task is done."_

"_Azaria," Koronin sighed. "I will not argue with you – come home soon. Please."_

_And with that, the transmission ended and Shamo was left looking at the rotating logo of the transmission broadcaster._

* * *

Shamo sighed at the sight of the ship she was to take – A new Corellian CR90 corvette. It was only a prototype, and the former Jedi was hesitant to ride on a basically untested starship.

"Lieutenant, these ships are the best you can get – they've got extra speed and thick armour. They can hit light speed faster than those Nubian fighters. I promise you that they're the best you get, better than the cruiser class," a young midshipman tried to convince Shamo of the new ship's credibility. Finally, after many pleas, Shamo consented and boarded the 'Tantive'.

After being briefed on procedures on the Corellian corvette, Shamo retired to the cabin she would be staying in for the duration of the trip to Alderaan. The new hyper speed generator supposedly would cut the time by half to just over one week.

Somehow, to Shamo, the thought that the new ship would be travelling two times faster than she had ever gone before, wasn't overly comforting to her, but she remembered the lessons from her master. She must allow herself to trust the Force and the will of the Force; if it is her time to end, then end she will. The sagacious must learn to avoid expecting the impossible, grieving the irretrievable, and fearing the inevitable.

Shamo chuckled, nearly everyday Revii had said that to her, until one day he went out and bought a small bracelet that had those words engraved into the cloudy silver.

The bracelet was long gone, lost during the siege of the temple.

* * *

"_Today is your sixteenth birthday, Shamo. What should we do to celebrate," Jedi Knight Revii Aelfhald tussled the hair of his newly awakened apprentice. "I hear there is a good art display being held at the Io Centre. Want to go; I think I might be able to scrounge up a couple of tickets?"_

_Shamo yawned loudly and stretched her long limbs like a cat._

"_I have heard that it's good, but I've also heard that the art is made using various body parts of Nerfs, and the paintings are all Nerf's blood. Not overly appealing to me."_

_Revii laughed, his deep baritone voice bouncing off the walls and echoing through the apartment. "You sure don't have a stomach for blood – although I seem to remember my friends dragging me to a museum where rotting wampa carcasses were on display in glass cases... I couldn't eat meat for over a year."_

_Shaking her head, the messy headed padawan frowned at the piece of mystery meat she was about to take a bite of, and set her fork back down onto her plate._

"_Thanks, master, you just killed it for me, too."_

_After pushing away her plate, Shamo propped her feet up on the edge of the table and leaned back in her chair, "so today I'm sixteen... isn't that the legal drinking age for Haltija's on Tirius? Hmm, I think it is!"_

_Both Jedi laughed._

"_Actually, I already bought you a gift, my padawan," Revii smiled and pulled out a black velveteen box. "I figured it might keep me from having to repeat myself over and over so often."_

_Shamo smiled joyfully and opened the box, gasping as the light bounced off the polished silver. A thin bracelet with a four tiny white gems surrounded a circular green stone._

_Revvi grinned at the look on his apprentice's face. _

"_Read the inscription on the inside of the band."_

_Gently, Shamo picked up the delicate thing and lovingly read out the words etched in gold. _

"_A Jedi must learn to avoid expecting the impossible, grieving the irretrievable, and fearing the inevitable."_

_Shamo looked up at her master and tears came unbidden into her dark green-grey eyes. She jumped up from her chair and ran around the table to give Revii a bear-hug._

"_Thank you so much."_

* * *

The journey passed relatively quickly and uneventfully, the nimble corvette dodged Imperial blockades and made it on time to Alderaan.

Setting down in the Organa family's personal compound, Shamo gathered her things, thanked the crew of the 'Tantive', and made her way to the offices of the head of house Organa, Bail.

The compound was a beautiful sight to behold – the buildings were low and sprawled out across the fields. The grey stone and polished duroglass contrasted one another amazingly, and the oxidized copper roofs added a quaint, ancient touch.

But all this Shamo noticed in just a glance, her years of Jedi training allowing her to see everything and nothing at the same time. Her focus was concentrated on the large spiral palace looming ahead of her, the Royal Tower of Alderaan.

The tower had been built in the ancient days of Alderaan's pre-space history, so long ago that none could discover how old, infact, the stone pinnacle was.

Filled with armouries, libraries, and vaults overflowing with jewels, the Royal Tower was the largest man-made structure on the planet. Until, of course, the booming Commerce Guild built an entire mile-high city of glass in the southern deserts.

Thrusting all thoughts from her mind, Shamo used one of the many Jedi calming techniques and began ascending the marble staircase leading to the entrance.

All seemed well and peaceful, yet for some reason Shamo found her hand drifting down to the hilt of her lightsaber concealed beneath her robes...

* * *

_**I know, I know – In the movies Bail Organa is the senator of Alderaan, as well as the head of house Organa, but for my purposes I'm using the old concept that there were two Bail's; Bail Antilles and Bail Organa.**_


	3. Alderaan

Chapter Three: Alderaan

* * *

The eight cloaked men in dark blue robes surrounded Shamo brandishing an assortment of weapons, varying from blasters to vibro-swords. The paused, confused, for a moment when a vibrant heliotrope blade jumped out of Shamo's lightsaber hilt, but quickly overcame that confusion and assailed the lone Jedi. 

Three at a time attacked her as the others covered their comrade's backs.

In the fury of their attack Shamo felt herself working up a sweat. Parrying a lethal thrust to her neck, Shamo ducked under the man's arm and punched him in a particularly painful spot between his shoulder blades, causing him to drop his blade and tumble forwards into one of his friends. Using the momentary confusion to her advantage, the Jedi kicked a mace out of another man's hand and caught it in her left hand. More of the aggressors dashed forewards, only to be knocked down both by a blow of the mace and a surge of wind caused by Shamo pushing with the Force.

A blaster bolt cut through the blade she carried.

Discarding it Shamo reached into her cloaks near her back and smiled widely at the attackers. With a _swish vroom_, she ignited a second blade, this one vivaciously ginger in colour. The assailants took a step back and looked questioningly at one another.

Never one to let her enemies regroup easily, Shamo used the force to flip over their heads and land at the top of the expansive staircase.

Flourishing her twin blades in front of her menacingly, the Jedi waited in calm repose for what would happen next.

What did happen next completely surprised the young Haltijatan.

The men picked their friends up off the ground, put away their weapons, and nearly disappeared into the dense foliage around the base of the stair.

Shamo stood amazed and looked around her.

There wasn't anyone in the vicinity to her eyes – she reached out with the Force, yet could find no trace of her attackers.

The Jedi straitened out of her defensive stance and deactivated her second lightsaber, letting the other fall to her side, although still humming with energy.

After a few more minutes of silence, the humming ended as the purple blade extinguished.

Confused, Shamo turned and slowly began walking, once more, towards the large doors to the palace entrance.

Just as she reached out to open a smaller side door, it swung open and out stepped a contingent of guards dressed in robes much the same as those of her attackers only with insignias embroidered in silver and ruby red thread on their sleeves.

"Sub-Lieutenant Jedi Zemmeck?"

Shamo cocked an eyebrow at the leader of the guards.

"I thought that the Alderaanian's had no weapons? A peaceful people, I had heard."

The captain's face was emotionless and his eyes cold, "For the most part, you are correct. But we must protect our royal household from imposters and those who would do them harm. So I ask, are you the Jedi Azaria Zemmeck, former Sub-Lieutenant in the old Republic's fleet?"

Putting on her best Jedi face, Shamo pulled herself up to her full height and bowed her head towards him.

"Greetings! Indeed, I was both the Jedi Azaria and Sub-Leftie Zemmeck, but in the last few years I have found it necessary to go by another identity. You can call me Shamo."

The captain moved aside so she could go past him inside the door.

"Well met, Shamo. I am Captain Organa of the Royal Guard, and if you will follow me, I will take you to the council hall."

* * *

Bail sighed as he cut off the communication with his cousin of the same name.

The Jedi Shamo had arrived safely and passed the tests of Bail Organa's second cousin, and was now being debriefed by the high council of the Barons.

It turned out that not only had this 'Shamo' character intercepted a few messages while hacking into the Imperial database, but had discovered vital information as to the location of secret research facilities where new and terrible weapons were being created.

This information would be 'accidentally' revealed to the fledgling rebellion and action now planned to happen.

Antilles smiled, maybe this wasn't such a bad thing after all. They had gained a powerful ally, one of the last Jedi left in the galaxy, and a pot load of new information.

As his mother used to say, every asteroid has a diamond inside.

* * *

The nanny droid warbled a warning for Shamo to keep a firm hold on the squirming toddler. The little princess Leia Organa, formerly Skywalker, gurgled in the Jedi's arms and waved her pudgy little arms in the air. Shamo smiled.

It had been a long time since she had held a small child, a longer time since it was under relatively pleasant circumstances.

Bail Organa stood nearby, pride written on his face as his adopted daughter grabbed his finger and jabbed it into her mouth.

"She is strong in the force, just as much as Anakin was," Shamo commented. "She'll be a heart-breaker for sure, if genetics have anything to say about it."

Organa grinned, "That indeed it true. Her mother was a beautiful young woman, and from what I hear her father was once a very good looking young man."

The last part of what he said came out bitterly, as if even the thought of the little girl's biological father made a bad taste in his mouth.

"I'm very sorry that Amidala is unable to see her little one grow up."

Shamo placed and unoccupied hand on the King's shoulder comfortingly.

"Leia will only know you as her father, Your Majesty; nothing will be able to change her love for you. I can promise you that," the Jedi vowed in a low voice. "But I must ask where the senator is now?"

Bail hesitated, then took the happy child out of Shamo's arms, kissed her cubby little face, then handed her off to a nanny droid.

"Come with me, please. We must talk in my office where it is safe to speak more freely."

The two left the nursery and went through a mirage of tunnels and passageways before entering the office through a hidden doorway.

"We can never be sure where bugs might have been placed – the palace is routinely swept every half hour, but there are new tricks that allow the imperial technology to hide them from us. The office and council halls are continuously swept."

"Very cool, Your Majesty."

Bail sat down in a puffy looking chair and motioned for Shamo to do the same.

"Jedi Zemmeck... or would you prefer Azaria?"

"Shamo, actually. I prefer that name."

"Shamo? That's an unusual name, why Shamo?"

"It was a nickname that my friends in the temple gave me when I was just an initiate..."

* * *

"_Azaria, how come you get to make two lightsabers?"_

_The young Haltija looked over at the indignant Rodian._

"_Because I'm great with one lightsaber, of course."_

_Derrick laughed, "No, it's because she managed to convince Master B'Vand that she lost her first one."_

_The young Jedi initiates laughed and Azaria blushed crimson._

"_That's a lie, I convinced her to let me make another because I wanted to try with both and so I'd have a back up if I ever needed it."_

_The children laughed._

"_What do you expect, a sith to pop out and chase you? Jedi don't use lightsabers in real fights anymore! Blasters are where it's at," Derrick giggled._

_One of the younger initiates that the close group had sort of taken under their wings shook her small fist at Azaria and admonished, "Shame, shame!"_

_Yet due to her child's lisp and her Mon-Calmari accenting, it came out as 'shamo, shamo.'_

_The rest of the children, from that point on, forever called their companion 'Shamo'.

* * *

_

"And you trust that the Empire will never track down her whereabouts? It seems a bit risky to me."

Organa nodded, "I thought so too, until Amidala convinced me that, as it is the opposite of what most people would do, no one would expect her to do dormant and stay in one place. Truthfully, I had ever even heard of the planet before, but she left not long ago with five friends and bodyguards. She said if the Empire ever falls, that she'll return... but this iron grip that the Emperor has on the galaxy... I cannot see her return for at least five or six years. She'll have missed her little girl's growing up."

Shamo nearly laughed at the naivety of the King's words.

"I must protest, I think you are underestimating the losses the free world have suffered – as far as I know, there's only a few handfuls of Jedi left, and even fewer members of the Republic Fleet. And many of those that are alive are in hiding such as I was, or are in an Imperial detention centre. To be realistic, we might have to accept that the Empire is here to stay, maybe not forever, but for a long time. The Sith do not give up easy, and the army is made up of young, zealous, brainwashed youths who've listened to the sermons of Palpatine and his underling's teachings of human superiority and the cleansing of the galaxy.    
"The rebellion is but a small force, one of several such small forces in the known worlds. They need to be united, but hidden from the sight of Coruscant."

Organa nodded, "my cousin is seeking out, discreetly, of course, other senators who have similar... differences in their ideals. My brother, Neil, and my wife went a few months ago to secure a sight for a base, under the cover of a safari trip around some of the more tropical planetary systems. We haven't heard much from them, but Joaquima sent an update a little while ago saying that there was a potential spot in the Yavin system. Supposedly some old temples hidden in the jungles. Anyways, that's about it."

"Ah... that's it as in that's all there is or as in that's all you'll tell me?"

Bail grinned mischievously, "a little of column A, and a little of column B."

Shamo laughed, "Alright, okay. I can deal with that, your Majesty."

* * *

"_Two in the morning dusty space-port town   
The river rolls in the night   
Little gypsy moth she's all tied down   
She quiver in the wind and the light _

Yeah and a spacer's ship is just held down in chains   
From the lazy days of sail   
She's just a lying there in silent pain   
He lean on the tourist rail

A mother and her baby and the college of war   
In the concrete graves   
You never wanna fight against the stars' law   
Nobody rules the waves   
Yeah and on a night when the lazy wind is a-wailing   
Around the Cutty Sark   
The single handed spacer goes sailing   
Sailing away in the dark

He's upon the bridge on the self same night   
The spacer of dry dusty land   
Two in the morning but there's one green light   
And a man on a barge of sand

She's gonna slip away below him   
Away from the things he's done   
But he just shouts 'hey man what you call this thing'   
He could have said 'Pride of Mimbon'   
On a night when the lazy wind is a-wailing   
Around the Cutty Sark   
Yeah the single handed spacer goes sailing   
Sailing away in the dark"

_The Padawans all sat, raptured, with the beautiful yet sad song that young Maarae sang. Maarae, the same youngster that had given Shamo her nickname, had just returned from a journey to the temple ruins on Dantoonie and was sharing one of the many beautiful songs that she had learned on her visit._

_Of the old group of friends only the younger Mon-Calmari girl wasn't yet a padawan, but that was not ill – she was only eleven while the rest were well into their fifteenth year._

_Those days had been blissful, it was sad when they were away with their masters on missions, but that only made the time together that much sweeter. Of course, the Padawan's all loved their masters and wouldn't give up being apprentices for anything in the worlds, but they did miss their close circle of friends. _

_Even up to the end of the Clone Wars and the near extinction of the Jedi order, they stuck together as much as possible... but their numbers dwindled and friends saw friends being slaughtered and companions cut down by the ruthless enemy._

_Yes, those days were held fondly in remembrance, but not without a taste of bitterness._

_But still the words of Shamo's master rang through her mind._

"_A Jedi must learn to avoid expecting the impossible, grieving the irretrievable, and fearing the inevitable."

* * *

_

A hooded and cloaked figure snuck into a dark room.

Grabbing a keypad he began typing up a message onto the computer.

He paused, scanned the computer screen, and then snarled.

Someone had hacked his files... luckily he had built in firewalls to protect his identity... but this hacker hadn't built any of their own.

With a sadistic grin on his face, the man began tracing the hacker back to its source...

* * *

Shamo accessed her data pad only to frown.

Her files were all messed around with and the classic signs of a hacker were all over her programs.

Shamo could barely stand the irony – the hacker had been hacked!

Though she tried to trace the hacker back to its roots, and she over-road the programming on several firewalls, the Jedi discovered she was only following cold tracks....yet the tracks were familiar.

With a yelp Shamo recognized the signature of her hacker – the mystery source in the Alderaan court!

* * *

The mysterious spy smiled as he saw the traces of the hacker trying to find his source, only to go in circles. He laughed in a deep, scratchy voice.

This one would regret snooping in his files.

Yet what the spy didn't know was that his hacker had changed the info in his files. The spy continued to send updates to the Emperor, telling his master of the young woman who had appeared one day on a Corellian corvette and addressed the high council on secret matters. Little did he know that those messages never reached the Emperor in their true form. He always recived the same answer:

**_'Stay as you are, do not reveal yourself. Stay in your current position and await orders otherwise.'

* * *

_**

Shamo kept a running tab on this spy – he knew of her yet not that she was his hacker. Through the messages she intercepted the Jedi developed a strong idea of who this traitor might be – she built a profile of the man and watched as it took form.

It wouldn't be long now until she discovered who this spy was, not long before he makes a mistake that will lead her strait to him.

* * *

The spy swore under his breath – another dead end.   
He had traced the data pad back to Coruscant and then to a name.

'Revii Zemmeck'

This name held no meaning; there were no life forms that he could find with that name that would fit the profile of a hacker. Hence, he began searching both names separately, looking for connections.

Eventually he came across two names that were connected.

Revii Aelfhald and Azaria Zemmeck, both Jedi, both dead in the Clone Wars.

This search was taking him no-where.

He searched the names again, this time – for no real reason – in the Imperial criminal watch system. He got a hit.   
        Azaria Zemmeck wanted for the theft of Imperial fighter prototype plans.

The spy smiled. There were three possibilities: one, which someone had the same name as the dead Jedi, two, which someone took over the identity of the dead Jedi, or three, that the dead Jedi isn't actually dead.

* * *

Shamo got the break she needed, but it wasn't the most heart warming thing in the worlds – the spy had sent a message to the Emperor and signed his name on the bottom. Unfortunatly for Shamo – the spy's message to the Emperor was informing his master that he possibly knew the identity of a hacker and a criminal. Her.

Quickly changing the message to suit her purposes, Shamo copied down the spy's name onto a piece of paper and ran to the King's office.

"Your Majesty! I know who the leak is!"


	4. Gift of a Princess

Chapter Four: Gift of a Princess

* * *

Bail had immediately informed his cousin, Antilles, about the Imperial agent that was planted as a clerk in the Royal tower. The honorable senator suggested using the knowledge to of the mole to feed false information to the Emperor. 

The spy, now revealed as David Lighthaven, had also been sending important information to the empire concerning the involvement of the Alderaanian royal house in the affairs of the rebellion.

All were worried at how much the Empire had profited from the mole's information, yet relieved that Shamo had intercepted his transmissions when he did.

With a delicate, almost artistic grace, false information was dished out to or in front of Lighthaven, and Shamo altered anything in his transmissions that would impede their plans or reveal their knowledge of the mole's presence.

Soon, the mole was telling the Emperor about how the Royal house took back their loyalties with the rebels and that it had been let slip in his presence that the rebels were congregating on the Smuggler's Moon and Kessel.

The replies sent from the office of the Emperor told him, as usual, to wait for further orders, and congratulated him on his good work.

It was running perfectly, and did so for over six years.

Shamo was happy on Alderaan. She lived among the royals of the prosperous little planet, and delighted in playing 'aunty' to little Leia.

She taught the child basic Force skills, not even explaining them to the child lest the unfortunate happen... Shamo taught Leia to meditate and simple Force 'games', like knowing what sabbac card she held without seeing the actual card, and little things like that. Indeed, as the little princess grew up, she did some of the lessons without thought. Leia was a killer sabbac player, and could beat the best of them by the age of eight.

But as the galaxy moved on, so did the events of the worlds within it.

The rebels banded together and formed the Alliance, secretly spearheaded by the Alderaanian royal family, and Shamo felt the Force tugging at her to depart and get back into the action.

* * *

"Commander Kyllikki, a transmission from Coruscant. Should I transfer it to your cabin?" 

Shamo gazed groggily at the image of a young ensign on her message screen and felt a strange swoosh of déjà vu.

"Yes please, ensign. I'll be there in a second."

Shamo, now known as Eerikki Kyllikki (a traditional Haltijatan name) peeled herself off the comfy sleep couch she had been dozing on and stumbled to her private quarters.

_'It pays to be a commander these days; all the sub-lefties are all in common quarters. Poor buggers; but then, maybe I only had my own cabin back in the day because I was a Jedi... hmm... there's something to meditate on,'_ Shamo thought sleepily.

Bumping through the door into her despairingly messy cabin, Shamo pushed a pile of papers and datapads away from the holo-projector on her desk.

"Defiantly déjà vu," she mumbled, flipping the blinking switch.

The projection of a handsome man popped up onto her desk and Shamo fairly jumped to attention. It was Bail Antilles.

"Greetings, Commander... uhm... _Kyllikki_. I have news from my dear cousin on Alderaan. The mole escaped – he traced the program you made and realized that he had been compromised. I don't think he knows how long we've been watching him, he told Maaria that they just discovered him, so we made it look like we were investigating who the mole was, then arrested him. He tried to run but didn't get far.   
"Bail-O's men are interrogating him now – and they were only told that we just found him too, so there's no way that the man will ever find out how long we've known about him."

"Ah. I see, but I have two questions: one – what are you going to do with him?"

Bail-A looked thoughtful, "We haven't decided yet, so far he hasn't said anything, which is quite amazing for a mole. Do you have any ideas?"

Shamo thought about it for a moment, then snapped her fingers and motioned as though a flash bulb had gone off above her head.

"Before he says anything, let him go, say that you made a mistake or something like that, then go and pretend to arrest someone else. Let him go and offer him a raise in compensation for his grievances and then see if he goes back at his old routine... but before he's gone, have all the computers he could possibly get his hands on installed with a double-agent program. Your brother, Neil, will know how to do it so that Lighthaven won't find it."

Antilles smiled, "see, you're a great asset!"

But Shamo frowned, "but what to do if he declines and tries to run back to the Imps?"

"Well... since he knows about Leia and, though we fed him lies, much more than he should. He'd be eliminated, I suppose. You remember your little run in with the Royal Guard right after you arrived on Alderaan? They'd take care of any problems of that sort. Maaria, in fact, is one of them."

Shamo smiled, "And that brings me back to my second question. Who is Maaria?"

"Maaria, Maaria, Maaria. She, as I have just told you, is a member of the Elite Royal Guard, we placed her undercover in the same office as Lighthaven and she 'befriended' him," the senator answered with a smug grin. "She's been very useful."

Shamo grinned back, "That's beautiful irony! Place a mole on a mole, Ha!"

Both laughed.

"So how's the little munchkin doing? Still tagging around with you in the senate building?"

Antilles' face softened, "she was, the little honey bun. She's been bothering her father now, for a little while. We sent her home the moment we caught wind that Lighthaven might get away. But I guess she misses the senate – she's attending the Royal courts and her father, ever a softie, lets her make little speeches about whatever's going on, or about whatever she wants, really. The other day she spoke about why she needs to eat more chocolate cake."

Shamo smiled softly and Bail-A went on, "but she's showing great diplomacy and oratory skills, she resolved a dispute between those two families what have been fighting for centuries. Amazing little girl."

"It must be her birthday soon; I'll have to get her a present." Shamo glanced at the chrono on the wall, "how old will the munchkin be?"

"Oh Force preserve us! She's going to be 10 next month."

Both sighed – the little girl that they both loved like their own was growing up.

* * *

The entire Organa and extended family attended the princess' tenth birthday party. 

Senator Antilles was there, along with several other senators, and a few Imperial high-to-dos were there, as well. Not surprising though, as Alderaan had been one of Palpatine's staunchest supporters (pre-Clone Wars) and still pretended to be so now.

A few well concealed and mainly un-known rebels were in attendance, claiming distant relation to distant relations of the royal family.

One of these was Shamo.

Her most recent alias Eerikki Kyllikki was amazingly, to her, well known to the Empire.

Hence, for the purposes of attending her 'niece's' birthday party, went back to an old alias that she had used while Leia was younger.

The situation with Lighthaven had been... seen to by the Elite Royal Guard when, after two more years after the incident where he was arrested, the spy realized he was still being watched and attempted to flee Alderaan with his fiancée Maaria.

So there were few dangers in Shamo making an appearance as Leia's 'aunty' Shannon Antilles.

Shamo and Bail-A met up together before traveling to Alderaan, so they had time to talk on the way. They arrived in the early morning hours of Leia's birthday, and the excited princess was there to greet them with her father.

"Uncle Bail! Aunty Shannon! Guess what?" Leia shouted over the loud shut-down procedures of the propulsion-lift engines.

Bail-A scooped up his niece and spun her around in a circle.

"I don't know what day it is," Bail teased her, giving her a bear hug. "Is it solstice?"

"No!"

"Is it garbage day?"

"No!"

"Is it New Year's day?"

"No, Uncle Bail!"

Bail quit spinning her and made a mock thoughtful look.

"Well I don't know, those are all the holidays that I know... Oh! Of course, how could I have forgotten," Bail shouted as though coming across a revelation.

"Today is my teddy-bear's birthday!"

The indignant ten-year-old squirmed out of his arms and glared up at him, her fancily braided hair flying astray in the breeze.

"Uncle Bail, it's my birthday today! You didn't know that?"

Bail leaned down and pinched Leia's nose.

"Happy Birthday, my ten-year-old little munchkin. But now you've got to get your nose back," Bail cried happily, running as the princess chased after him.

Everyone present, minus a few etiquette teachers, laughed as the little girl made a flying tackle and pinned the galactic senator down in the dirt of the landing strip and proceeded to 'get his nose'.

Bail-O, smiling at the antics of his daughter and cousin, looked over at Shamo and bowed his head lightly.

"It's good to see you again, my dear. It's been far too long since you've been home."

Shamo smiled and moved to bow lowly to the King, but instead her embraced her in a bear hug.

"Leia has missed you, too. She can barely wait for you to tell her a story or teach her a new game... you know, she's been cleaning up my guardsmen on the side at the sabbac tables. It seems she's unbeatable... she must have learned a few tricks from her aunt?"

Shamo grimaced and glanced over at the King, reaching out to see if he wand angry at her for teaching Leia to use the Force. But Bail only smiled.

"Don't worry; I know that you taught her a few tricks. I'm rather glad to some point. I realized right away when you first came here that you might teach her, and her nanny droids would report her doing odd things at a young age. Meditating was one thing that came naturally to her, and I attribute her wisdom to it. But I am glad that you did not teach her more, and especially that you didn't tell her about it, seeing as how she has been spending some time on Coruscant and in the senate halls. Her being that close to Palpatine... I don't want to think anymore of it, but you see my point?"

Shamo nodded, "Indeed, your Majesty, I do."

There was an awkward silence that was thankfully broken by Leia running up and fairly tackling Shamo.

"I've missed you Aunty Shannon; I hope I'm getting a speeder today; today I'm turning ten and that means that I can take flying lessons! Can you teach me, do you fly? I really, really can't wait! Ohh, Aunty Shannon, I can't wait for my party!"

Shamo and the Bails' laughed; the birthday party would be a good one.

* * *

It wasn't until the end of the next day that all the presents had been opened and the wrapping paper put away. 

The princess had received many presents, and yes, she did get a speeder from one of her relatives, and a swoop from one reckless cousin. Perhaps the most extravagant gift was not from any of her relatives, but a good friend of the King and Senator that was one of the big fish in the Corellian Engineering Corperation. The young princess received a brand new, fresh off the line CR-90 corvette.

Shamo had laughed when she saw the name on the nameplate; it was the 'Tantive IV', a new model of the prototype ship that had originally brought her to Alderaan.

'This galaxy is full of ironies,' she thought with considerable mirth.

The three presents (after those) that Leia loved the most were from her father, Bail-A, and Shannon Antilles.

Bail-O had given his daughter her very own library full of books of law, history, and all those things an aspiring senator needs.

Bail-A gave his niece a very daring present – a self defense instruction vid, a pair of dull practice blades, and her very own pistol blaster. (Bail-O quickly removed the pistol from the table and shoved it at a droid to take and hide in his bedroom, while glaring at his beaming cousin.)

But Shamo's gift was quite different.

It was a very simply made gold necklace with a little polished silver locket.

Try as she might, Leia was unable to open the locket, and neither could her father.

"Aunty, your present is broken! I can't open it," Leia complained.

Shamo grinned, "it's a special locket – you have to wait until it's ready for you to open it... it has a secret inside that you can't find out just right yet."

Leia looked in confusion at the tiny locket, "I don't understand."

"Maybe," Shamo placed a hand on the girl's immaculately braided and brown haired head, "maybe when you're older I can teach you how."

With a shrug, Leia slipped the necklace around her neck and smiled at her father.

"Daddy lets go flying!"

* * *

_Shamo had gone to great pains to find the write jeweler to make the necklace for Leia. The locket was one that could only be opened by using the Force, directly, to unlock its secrets. On the inside, Shamo put a tiny data chip that contained the history of the Jedi order and Shamo's own personal history up-to-date. The chip had an uplink with a data pad that the Jedi kept locked away in a safety box on Malistar. With the pad she could update her life story into the microchip from anywhere, at anytime._

_On the outside of the locket, in flowing script, Shamo couldn't help but put the words:_

"_The sagacious must learn to avoid expecting the impossible, grieving the irretrievable, and fearing the inevitable."_

_Once the gift was completed, Shamo thanked the jeweller and paid him well.

* * *

_

Bail Organa and his daughter Leia were on their way to Coruscant, not two years later, when Bail received a patch transmission from one of Shamo's crewmembers. She had been discovered as a Jedi by the Imps and they had tried to outrun a Star Destroyer but their shuttle, the 'Tantive III' was damaged in a preceding battle and couldn't get away.

Shamo had ordered the crew to jettison and flew the ship herself, leading the Imperial battleship away from the fleeing rebels. Shamo lead the Star Destroyer in a terrible game of cat and mouse until, after being dealt a fatal blow to the hull causing a breach that opened the ship to the vacuum of space, she put all power in the front shields and rammed her ship into the Star Destroyer's bridge.

Her sacrifice saved the rebel survivors, as the Star Destroyer, one of the prides of the Imperial Fleet, dropped out of the sky towards a black hole.

When an Alliance rescue ship scanned the wreckage, they found only a few Imperial life-pods (which were captured) and, strangely, one rather beat-up lightsaber.

Later after the fall of the Empire and the rise of the new Republic, Leia discovered the secrets of her locket...


End file.
